USS Toro (SS-422) - First War Patrol

First War Patrol

Following her completion on 26 December 1944, Toro participated in training exercises out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Newport, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut, before arriving at Key West, Florida, on 11 February 1945. She provided services to the Fleet Sonar School, then, on 28 February, departed Key West in company with submarine Bumper (SS-333), bound for the Panama Canal Zone were she underwent a week of intensive training. The two submarines set a westward course for Hawaii on 15 March and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 April. Toro conducted training exercises out of that port with Submarine Division 101 until 24 April when she departed Oahu in company with submarine Billfish (SS-286). She arrived at Saipan on 6 May and, after one false start, got underway for her first war patrol on 10 May.

After arriving in her patrol and lifeguard area south of Shikoku and east of Kyūshū on 16 May, she occasionally encountered Japanese planes as she pursued her duties. On 18 May, following a probable periscope sighting, Toro detected a transmission on Japanese submarine radar frequency and attempted to close the contact but was unsuccessful.

As she patrolled Bungo Suido, she was often assigned as lifeguard for air strikes against the Japanese islands. While off Omino Shima before sunrise on 25 May, she received word that a B-29 Superfortress was in trouble. She began the search in state four seas with only fair visibility and, two hours after dawn, homed in by friendly air cover, she rescued two Army aviators who had been floating in their lifejackets for three and one-half hours. Twenty minutes later, she rescued another aviator and then continued her search for additional survivors until late in the day. While patrolling on the surface on the following morning, she made radar contact with a possible target at 2,000 yards (1,800 m). The submarine turned toward the contact and shortly thereafter a torpedo wake crossed her bow, indicating that an enemy vessel had first located her. Toro dove and had no further contact with the unseen attacker. Toro continued patrols and lifeguard duty in Bungo Suido until 14 June when she set her course for the Mariana Islands. She moored at Apra Harbor five days later.